Due to an imbalance between energy usage and energy demand, the development of alternative energy supplies and the development of energy recycling devices will become increasingly important in the near future. Various types of alternative energy sources are under investigation: nuclear energy, solar power (both photovoltaic and thermodynamic), wind energy, tidal energy, wave energy, geothermal energy, biomass, biofuels, and so on. The United States has claimed plans to generate 10% of total energy consumption by the year 2010, while other nations are already using such energy sources to provide large percentages of their energy needs.
In general, most energy in the US is produced using coal power at the present time. The highly polluting nature of coal energy is well known, less well known is the immense carnage that the “Black Lung” disease inflicts among coal miners exposed to coal dust for long periods: Black Lung kills coal miners in large numbers.
Hydropower and wind power both hold promise as relatively speaking “clean” sources of energy, however, even wind energy farms kill countless birds every years, while suitable locations for hydropower (dams) are frustratingly limited.
Another avenue for energy generation is the recycling/regeneration of waste energy into usable energy.
Examples of attempts to provide recycling of waste energy date back at least as far as U.S. Pat. No. 159,660 issued Feb. 9, 1875 in the name of Faivre, and include numerous more recent items. However, most of these schemes involve devices which are either inefficient at producing energy or are excessively complex. One example of the inefficiencies of such systems is the relatively course grain of the sections of ground which move to generate electricity.
Methods and devices for recycling/regeneration of waste energy into usable energy will be at the forefront in providing solutions to the energy problems of the present and near future.
One method of generating electricity uses the reserve energy from human bodies as they walk or run from place to place. In particular, as a person moves, the energy from foot impact on the ground followed by pushing the foot off of the ground, and the energy of the weight of a human body resting momentarily on one place and then moving on, all combine to provide a source of energy, to the surface over which the person passes. However, in order to generate power, it is necessary for motion of the surface to occur.
It would be advantageous to provide a fine grained, cellular system for allowing energy generation from passage of human beings.
In particular, the energy wasted in the passage of human beings from place to place offers unlimited potential and almost unlimited possibilities for recycling otherwise wasted human energy.
It would be advantageous to provide a method of recycling wasted human energy which could be applied in almost unlimited locations.